Bankrupt and Fired Before 30 | #BILFPOD with Mauricio Umansky

BILFPOD

Mauricio Umansky shares his transformative journey from facing bankruptcy and a fashion business failure to becoming a global real estate mo

Key takeaways

• Mauricio experienced bankruptcy and Chapter 11 at age 26 after production issues plagued his fashion brand, 90265.
• He successfully grew his fashion company from $3 million to $30 million in sales within just two years.

Main topics

• Overcoming early business failure
• Building global company culture

Notable quotes

If you don't fail at least once a day, then you're not doing enough things on a daily basis.

Conclusion

The episode serves as an inspiring blueprint for entrepreneurs on how

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) Remember when I sold the Playboy Mansion? First $100 million sale in Los Angeles. And I made a ton of money on that one. And I came into the office the next day and everybody was like, hey, Mauricio, why aren't you on holiday? Why aren't you on vacation? I'm like, well, that sale passed. Speaker 1 (0:13) What would you say to people that say that? You're so lucky, Mauricio, you had everything handed to you. Speaker 2 (0:18) Well, I just won. Um, it's not true. They fired me right before Christmas. I was around 26 years old when I got fired. I already had two daughters, had experienced already a bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 at a very young age. My God, if you don't fail at least once a day, then you're not doing enough things on a daily basis. Speaker 1 (0:36) Welcome back to the BuildPod, where authenticity trumps authority. Here on the BuildPod, boss I'd like to follow. I am your host, Mara Dorn. We love to highlight women in the boardroom to CEOs, founders, reality stars to real estate moguls. Today's guest needs no introduction. for he is a force to be reckoned to, founder and CEO of the agency. His agency has closed over $100 billion in real estate. But the funny thing is he didn't start out in real estate, really started out in fashion. So without further ado, welcome to the show, Mr. Mauricio Yamansky. Welcome to the Belf Pod. Speaker 2 (1:19) Oh, thank you so much. It's so good to be on here with you and I can't wait to explore and figure out some of those authentic things that you're talking about. Well, Speaker 1 (1:27) first, talk about authentic. Do you recognize this? Speaker 2 (1:33) Oh my God, it's so tiny on my screen. How about Speaker 1 (1:37) this? Speaker 2 (1:38) 90265, I recognize it. No phone, do C-Sec. So I found Speaker 1 (1:42) this. I found this. Does this ring, does this take you back? Is this nostalgia or what? Speaker 2 (1:47) Oh my god, I love it. Let me see that other one. That was a sweatshirt. Now that I know you're looking at my sweatshirts and everything. Yeah, that was a great, that was a t-shirt, right? Speaker 1 (1:55) Yeah, this is a t-shirt. I'm not a stalker. Wait, I just want to preface. I'm not a stalker. I was just doing my due diligence over here. So I found this on Poshmart. I found, this is where, does this ring a bell? Does this take you back? Speaker 2 (2:08) Oh my god, that was a fun time in my life. It was a really, really interesting time. Speaker 2 (2:13) Just you know had a ton of fun growing that company that was a lot of fun We took that company over with three million dollars of sales and turned it into a thirty million dollar company in two years It was a ton of fun. You Speaker 1 (2:26) started in fashion and then eventually moved over sold your company moved over to real estate I read an article that your daughter wrote which I thought was incredible She wrote a whole article about you and where you started and why you got into real estate. So take me back there like You go into fashion and then you switch over. That's a pretty big switch. What made you go from fashion to real estate? Speaker 2 (2:54) Well, failure in fashion at the end of the day. I mean, you know, in 90265 I had to, even though we grew the company tremendously, I was shipping goods. We were the first ones to do garment dye. And the goods were shrinking in different ways and they were being returned. And so even though I grew it tremendously from a sales perspective, production was a mess. And ultimately we had to sell the company, close it down. Speaker 2 (3:20) and sell it. The brand was good, the label was good, so people wanted the brand and the label. Then I went to go work for a huge company, a corporate company that hired me. And man, I was not built for corporate world. I can resonate. I went to go work for them. I did that for about a year, eight months. And then they let me go. They fired me right before Christmas. Speaker 2 (3:47) And, you know, I was young still. I mean, I started that company in 90265 when I was, I don't know, I got into it. We actually purchased that company. Speaker 1 (3:55) I Speaker 2 (3:55) don't know, I was probably 22 years old when I did that. Yeah. You know, so I think that I was around 26 years old when I got fired. And I already had two daughters and, you know, had experienced already a bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 at a very young age. And, yeah, so, you know, it was time to make a change. My brother-in-law owns Hilton in Highland, which was a great real estate brokerage firm. And I decided, you know, I knew I was good at sales and I decided to get into sales and start selling some bigger ticket items. Started selling some big homes. Speaker 1 (4:29) Yeah, I mean, I can totally resonate. That's pretty much what happened in my story for myself is that I went from... corporate America, well I was supposed to go to corporate America, ended up in sales, which is really what I call the school of hard knocks, because if you haven't experienced sales, then you really haven't experienced life. But, you know, I know you went into business with your family and then ended up leaving. Now, when it comes to family and business, people say do not mix it. What would you say about mixing family and business? Speaker 2 (4:57) Well, I disagree with that. You know, it was great for us. I mean, we had a great run. We had a great Speaker 2 (5:05) My god 15 years together. We made a ton of money together. Yeah, you know whether it ended up failing in the end And you know, it got a little hairy and you know, that's part of life But you know at the end of the day we had 15 great years together for sure. Yeah, we made a ton of money together and So, you know things can work. I think egos sometimes get in the way. Yeah, sometimes get in the way But if you can keep all of those things apart, you can actually, you know, do business. But, you know, you're going to get into fights in business no matter what with somebody. Speaker 1 (5:39) Absolutely. Speaker 2 (5:40) Right. Whether it's your family, your friend, your partner. And man, you better trust who you're getting in business with. That's the bottom line. Speaker 1 (5:46) Yeah, I would definitely say I agree with you. My business was built around family and friends. So I can tell you from my own experience that you're right. You know, it's about the lessons that you learn. Sometimes it gets a little, you know, it gets a little precocious and there's definitely some trials and tribulations along the way. But a lot, you do learn a lot. You take a lot from it. And I know one big thing for yourself was when you left, I was reading that when you left, you know, that's a big leap of faith. That's a hard leap of faith for people that are, you know, you're in a comfortable situation. You're making a lot of money. So what was the turning point that you were like, you know what? I'm going to go full belief in myself and I'm going to start my own thing. Speaker 2 (6:26) Well, you know, I became the number three agent in the country. Yeah, number one in California And there was really only two more spots to go. I love that. It's not like so You know the goal for me at that point was to become number one, right? But you know it was as much as I wanted to do that There was a bigger goal and there was something you know a lot of the systems and strategies that I used to become you know number three Were teachable they were repeatable um there were systems that i could you know work with people and i thought that there was a void in the in the real estate business at that time uh i met a great uh friend of mine and colleague billy rose who i ultimately ended up founding the agency with um and i remember i went you know he used to run a uh a meeting where we all shared private listings and we all shared all kinds of different you know knowledge um and i called him up and i said dude i've got this idea and he said yes before we i even pitched it. Speaker 1 (7:24) That's crazy. Speaker 2 (7:25) You know, we launched the agency and here we are, you know, 15 years later, just so happens that we're pretty much 50 50 on those two worlds. And here we are 15 years later with 170 offices globally in 17 countries. So still growing, still pushing hard. And the end is not here yet. Speaker 1 (7:46) You sound like me, like it's never enough. Speaker 2 (7:49) You Speaker 1 (7:50) said that's like me. It's never enough. You know, again, like my story resonates so much. It wasn't enough to do a billion dollars in sales. And I wanted to build from there and continue. But one thing I do want to talk about, especially for the audience, is the importance of building an agency that has a strong culture and why culture is a big part of business and in building a thriving company. Speaker 2 (8:15) Well, culture is everything. You know, culture I define as the personality of the business. And that's basically everybody that works at the business, at the company, should share in that culture, should share in that personality. That doesn't mean we have different personalities. We all have our own personalities. We all do our own thing. But there are certain personality traits that we all share in common. Speaker 1 (8:36) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:37) And if you don't share that, then go work at another company. Speaker 1 (8:40) For sure. Speaker 2 (8:41) you know it's that simple but that's what kind of keeps you together right it's it's you know for us at the agency it's ethics um it's it's integrity it's no assholes it's collaboration you know it's these type of things that you know keep us all together um you know we all you know we're we're only as good as our weakest link for sure you know it's these little things that we just you know throw out there and we talk about you know we stay hungry um you know, we dare to innovate. Like these are the things that we talk about that, you know, that keep us all together and keep us all rowing the same boat. Speaker 1 (9:15) Yeah, I agree 100%. I think culture defines people, defines family. But when an organization has a strong culture, it speaks leaps and bounds about the company itself. Look, real estate is like insurance. That's what I do. You base it on commission. So people have to want to come to work. You can't force them to come. But what do you do, and this happens a lot too, when you bring somebody in and they can't or won't conform to the culture, what do you do? Speaker 2 (9:42) Well, at the end of the day, sometimes you just have to let them go. You know, I mean, you have to make some hard decisions at a certain point in your life. You've got to make a decision as to whether what's more important to your culture, you know, the law, the big picture, the long picture, or, you know, one person that's making a few, you know, quid. And you've got to make a decision on what's more important to you, you know, and at the end of the day, I think, you know. You're going to make, there's no right or right answer to that decision. You have to analyze everything individually. But at the end of the day, you know, culture should win. If that is what your North Star is, or if that's what your business is built on. Not every business is built on culture, by the way. That's not, you know, you don't have to have culture to have a business. But there are certain businesses that are built, you know, around. culture and ours is one of them. Speaker 1 (10:37) Yeah. No, I mean, I think a business without culture is not a thriving business. I've done been in business for 20 years and I can tell you that when your culture is not strong and your agents aren't running through walls for you, your business won't work. They have to want to come to work. You can't make them come. And if your culture, I mean, what else could you build your business around if it's not culture? Yeah. Speaker 2 (10:59) I mean, I happen to agree with you, and that's a big thing for us and for me. So, yeah, I'm 100 % in agreement with you on this one. Speaker 1 (11:05) What would you say would separate an agent that's making $200,000 a year versus an agent that's making $2 million? Speaker 2 (11:15) I think a lot of things, but, you know, one of them is the fight and the grind and the grip, Speaker 1 (11:21) you know, Speaker 2 (11:22) that somebody actually has. Obviously, you know, there are other aspects that sometimes are uncontrollable or some people have more of an advantage of, right? Like when you're in sales and real estate, and particularly if you happen to have, you know, a high... You know you went to school in the city that you're selling at you have a lot of friends and you're very popular and you've got a lot of people to talk to and call it's going to be